When we were in Budapest in July 2005, we unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit the House of Terror which is essentially a museum which describes Hungary's history with Communism and Fascism.
However, in Prague, we did get a chance to see the communism museum. It was very interesting, and I'd recommend it to anyone. There are old signs, posters and articles from the communist days. The most interesting is a short video that shows the 1989 protests against communism and the eventual fall of the iron curtain. It was incredible to see the difference between the video and current-day Prague. It is hard to imagine Wenceslas square jammed with protestors, police and tanks during the communist era. This photo gives a glimpse of some of the things in the communist museum.
Dates - July 14th to July 17th
We arrived in Prague on Thursday afternoon on a train from Vienna. After checking into our hotel, we decided to walk around the town to get a feel for the city. Our first stop was Wenceslas Square, which is really more like a wide boulevard with shopping than it is a square (picture). From Wenceslas Square, we continued walking to the Old Town Square (picture) and then to Charles Bridge (picture). The Old Town Square is the heart of Prague, with restaurants, horse and carriages, and the Tyn church providing a gothic backdrop. It also contains the famous Astronomical clock (picture). The Charles Bridge is an old pedestrian bridge lined with statues and entertainers such as fire throwers and musicians.
On Friday, we took a trip up to Prague's Castle area (Mala Strana - picture) which boasts spectacular views of the city, the Stahov Monastery, St. Vitus Cathedral, St. George's Basilica, and Golden Lane. The Stahov Monastery is located on a hill above the Castle area and is much less visited by tourists. Also located up near the monastery is a statue of Kepler and Brahe (picture). The walk from the monastery to the castle area has some beautiful scenary and provides a nice little getaway from the hustle and bustle of Prague. The Castle area contains the castle (not that much to see in there) as well as the St. Vitus Cathedral (picture), which can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city. After spending a couple of hours in the Castle area (and watching the changing of the guard - picture), and visiting Golden lane (on which Franz Kafka's house is located - picture), we then strolled down through the Little Quarter, over the Charles Bridge, back to central Prague. For dinner, we went to a restaurant in the Old Town Square. The food was OK but, more importantly, the ambiance of the area was great; especially the buildings all lit up at night (picture).
On Saturday, we spent the day at only a couple of sights, including the Municipal House (picture), Communism Museum, and Havelska Market (picture). The rest of the day, we spent just strolling casually around the city, visiting some of the shops and generally taking it easy. For dinner, we went to a Thai restaurant which served the best Thai food we've eaten since leaving Vancouver; this was quite a treat.
Sunday was our last day in Prague and, since many other sites were closed, we saved all of the Jewish sites for this day. Prague's Jewish Quarter (Josefov) is said to be one of the best Jewish sites in all of Europe. It is comprised of a number of synagogues and a remarkable cemetary. We started our tour by visiting the Maisel Synagogue; here we purchased a Jewish museum pass which covers most of the Jewish sites in Josefov. The Maisel Synagogue was more a museum than a place of worship. Inside, were a number of Jewish artifacts and information on the symbolism that is part of the faith (such as the Star of David) and information regarding the Holocost and what life was like for Jews before and after WWII. After seeing the Maisel Synagogue, we walked over to the Old Cemetary and Pinkas Synagogue (we skipped the Klaus Synagogue). The Old Cemetary was very interesting. This was one of the only places in Prague where Jews could bury their dead and, as a result, the cemetary is layered with years of burial plots and the headstones are extremely close together (picture). The Pinkas Synagogue is a tribute to the Prague Jews that were killed in the Holocost; the walls are lined with the names of all those that perished and a voice over the speakers reads out all of their names. It was quite a touching experience to feel the scope of the tragedy and suffering. The final Jewish site that we visited was the Spanish Synagogue. This is built in a Moorish style and I found the architecture and decorations to be extremely interesting and rich (picture). For anyone that visits the Josefov, this is a must-see site.
Dates - July 12th and 13th
We arrived in Vienna by train on Tuesday afternoon. Immediately, Vienna felt very different from Budapest. Even though much of the recent history and architecture is similar due to the Hapsburgs, Vienna is clearly a more modern city with better infrastructure. We arrived at Westbahnhof and switched to the subway (U-Bahn) to get to the city center; the U-Bahn was very efficient and well laid out. Soon, we had checked into our hotel in Vienna, and headed out to explore the city.
After checking into our hotel, we were hungry so we walked up Karntnerstrasse (Vienna's main pedestrian strip) to a cool little restaurant called Buffet Trzesniewski, which serves tasty little finger sandwiches and mini glasses of Pfiff beer (picture). After a quick lunch, we took the ring-road tram (picture) around the city center to get our bearings. From the ring-road tram, you can get a glimpse of many of Vienna's main sights, including the Hofsburg Palace, Parliament, City Hall, Museums, St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Stadtpark (with statues of many of Vienna's famous composers). After wandering around the city for a few hours, going into St. Stephen's cathedral, visiting the City Hall (which also had a festival going on) and seeing the Hofsburg Palace from the outside, (stopping for a nice coffee and Apfelstrudel at Demer's cafe - picture), we then went back to our hotel, changed, and headed out for dinner. For dinner, we went to a very local restaurant called EsterHazyKeller which has self-serve food and cheap wines in an underground cellar-like restaurant. This atmosphere was very unique and the food was quite good (I had a sausage and Nadya had a schnitzel - picture). After dinner, we spent some more time exploring Vienna at night, taking some night photographs (picture) and then headed back to the hotel.
On Wednesday, our second - and last - day in Vienna, we started off with a tour of the Hofsburg treasury (picture). This was a fascinating look at the history (and power) of the Hapsburg empire and the glory days of Vienna and Austria. From there, we took a tour of the famous Opera House (picture). One of the interesting things about this building is that a lot of it was destroyed during WWII; in my opinion, the original decor and architecture of the building was much nicer than the areas which were rebuilt after the war. For dinner that evening, we went to a Film festival at City hall, which had lots of food booths, and was very lively. We had some great beer in a very local, laid back atmosphere (picture). After spending a couple of hours drinking beer, eating good food, people watching and listening to good music at the festival, we then headed back to the center of town for a famous Sacher Torte and coffees (picture).
On Thursday, we took the train on to Prague, our last stop on this Central Europe trip.
Dates - July 9th to 12th
Budapest was the first stop on our Central Europe trip in July 2005. We took a SkyEurope flight from Paris to Budapest on Saturday morning and were in Budapest by the early afternoon. We were quite impressed by the hotel we stayed at, Artotel, which is a modern building of the Buda side of the Danube.
For our first day in Budapest, we spent the evening walking across the Chain bridge over to Pest and taking in a walk of the city. It is a very beautiful city, especially at night when the main sights are brightly lit up and reflect off the Danube river (picture). For dinner, we had a Hungarian donut (picture) and some wonderful stir fry and sausage on the Chain bridge (there was a market and festival (picture) on the bridge that weekend). In general, we were very surprised and impressed by Hungarian food, which is very flavorful and has a hint of Eastern influence.
On Sunday, our second day, we started the day with breakfast at the hotel. As far as European breakfasts go, this was probably the best we've ever had. After a nice, filling breakfast, we headed up to the Buda hills for a look at the Palace, and old city. The Palace (picture) is perched at the top of Buda Hill and is surrounded by a protective wall. Also on top of Buda Hill is the Fisherman's Bastion (picture) and the old town. For a late lunch, we stopped for (what else) Hungarian Goulash and beers (picture); this was my first Goulash experience and I absolutely loved the very paprika full taste. In the evening, we wandered around the central part of Pest and, to save some money, ate at Burger King.
On Monday, our last day in Budapest, we went to Hero's Square and the gardens. This area is a large park with an impressive monument to the Heros of the city making up the entrance to the park (picture). The park was beautiful, with a small lake, a zoo, baths and a castle (picture). Budapest has many natural hot springs and the Turks built bath complexes throughout out city (picture). In the evening, we had dinner at a Hungarian restaurant in Pest near the Danube. There we had some great fish soup, goulash, fish and beef (picture). The food was very good with lots of flavor and Eastern influences. In fact, this was some of the most flavorful food we've had in Europe.
On Tuesday, we caught a morning train from Budapest to Vienna.
Dates – July 1st – 4th 2005
Ever since we got engaged in Rome in December 2003, it has been our dream to be able to come back to Italy and spend our first anniversary in Venice. As luck would have it, our move to France in December 2004 set the stage for us to be able to easily make the trip out to Venice for our first anniversary.
We arrived in Venice on Friday afternoon after quite a long ordeal traveling from Paris. Nonetheless, the weather was perfect, and we were ready to discover the most romantic city in the world. Paul and Carlene had recommend a cute little hotel called Locanda Armizo (picture) right by the Rialto bridge in the San Silvestro area. It was reasonably priced, perfectly located and served a nice little breakfast in bed every morning. We spent almost all of Friday taking in the cities waterways, bridges and squares. We also had some very good pasta at a restaurant by the Rialto bridge. Before heading home for some late-afternoon rest, we dropped by an Italian deli to pick up some meats and cheese. When we returned home in the evening, we were pleasantly surprised to find a chocolate cake and some Champagne waiting for us at the hotel (picture); it was a present from my Mom, Dad and Ashish. The cake was great and we spent the remainder of the weekend eating it whenever we wanted a snack.
On Saturday, our anniversary, we spent the day exploring the city and went off to the islands of Lido and Murano (picture). On Lido, we found a nice dress for Nadya and had lunch. We also stopped at a local market to pick up some Apricots, figs, bread, and meats. On Murano, we looked at some of the glass shops and peeked into a glass factory. In the evening, we made up a little picnic (picture) comprising of meats, cheese, bread, figs, chocolate cake (that was sent to us the previous day) and some Moet et Chandon Champagne that we had brought with us from our trip to the Champagne region. We took our little picnic and sat on a dock near the Rialto bridge. The whole city was alive with tourists, but we had this little dock to ourselves to enjoy our picnic and watch the gondolas and boats float by. It was a truly romantic evening and we couldn’t possibly have imagined anything better for our first anniversary.
On Sunday, we spent more time exploring the back alleys and less-touristed areas of Venice. We took a vaporetto ride (picture) all around the lagoon and generally enjoyed life at a nice, slow Italian pace. By this point, we had seen the numerous sites of Venice many times over, including Piazza San Marco (picture), San Marco’s Basilica (picture), Rialto Bridge (picture), Accademia Bridge (picture), the Grand Canal (picture), the Doge’s Palace (from the outside), and numerous other markets, buildings and squares. Another nice surprise on Sunday is that there was a music festival in town, so there were bands playing music at every corner and square.
On Monday, our last day, we spent the morning in San Marco’s Basilica (picture) and had lunch by the Rialto bridge. The basilica was quite a sight with beautiful mosaics and golden finishes throughout. We also saw the four famous bronze horses which were taken from Constantinople and are thought to be around 2000 years old.
